that's all for now. i'm ann curry. from all of us here at nbc news, thanks for joining us. from nbc news in washington this is "meet the press" with daefd gregory. this sunday a special edition. remembering senator edward m. kennedy who was laid to rest yeerdaeveng along side his brothers at arlington national cemetery. with us to honor his remarkable life in career and public oice maria shriver, first lady of california and daughter of his sister unince shriver, and

kathleen kennedy townsend, the he wouldest child of his brother, robert f. kennedy. two of his closest colleagues in the senate, fellow senator from massachusetts john kerry and chris do of connecticut. plus, democratic strategist bob shurum long-time political advisor to the senator who helped wri his famous speech of the 1980 democratic national convention. >> the work goes on. the causeendures. the hope still lives. and the dream shall never die. >> and presidential historian doris kearns goodwin who author "t fitzgeralds and the kennedys." captions paid for by nbc-iversal television .

♪ ♪ friday evening after the moving morial service in boston, i sat down at the kennedy library with his niece maria shriver, and asked her what the tremendous public outpouring meant to her and her family. >> i think that it's extraordinary. i think driving from hyannis port to boston it wa so moving to see people standing along the freeway gathered on bridges, entire families, many in tears. boys with their hands over their hearts saluting. it was a great piece of america history that you were able to drive by, and this was a week day in the middle of the day, so people obviously had to miss work, take vacation, park tir cars and wait to just watch a hearse go by, and i thought it was so generous of the peopl

and so moving. it's something i think teddy would have been so thrilled bow and humbled by. >> it's interestingor the past several days we hear so much about the career, about the issues, about the passion. yet, at this memorial service you heard about the man, and you understood that public service for m was about other people, about serving people. >> well, teddy was, i think, known to the people who knew m him -- his heart was exaordinary. he was the most passionate man, and i think he worked that way because he himself knew pain, knew struggle, abandonment. he knew all of the things that pains a human being, and so when he saw other human beings in pain or where their character was questioned or they had lost, he was always the first pson

to reach out, and nobody does that who hasn't felt that way themselves, and i think that was something that people often overlooked abo him, didn't understand about him, but this was a man who had thought a lot, struggled a lot, whoad been through a lot, and he understood when other people also wen through a lot, and i thinkou have that outpouring because people, rular people, understood that about him. they saw through all of the labels. they saw through, you know, what people wrote. they saw this was a man who understood family, who understood stggle, who understood tumph and who understand, you know, weaknesses. we all have that. i think rarely do you see it. >> what has it been like as you watch all of this coverage and they're watching thefamily, and

wonderingow everybody is the president said this wasn't unexpected, but it was dreaded. how has everybody been doing? >> think people have often said, well, it wasn't a surprise. well, i think death is always a surpse. i've just gone through two in two weeks, and it's always a surprise, andt's always fil, and it's always difficult, and i think people grieve in their own way and their own time. i think teddy was one of those larger than life figures in our family. he was really the center of our family, and he was one of those people that you never expected to die. you just expected him to beat the odds. you expected him to -- i think anybody who has been through cancer knows the ups and downs. one day it's bad. one day it'sgood you, i think, always hope that this person is going to beat the odds. >> you he has been called the rock of the family, and this referred to your mother, who you

lost just in the past few weeks. anher rock of the family. it's a lot of ls in o time. >> it's a lot of loss. it's a lot of pain, but both of them led extraornary lives, and they lived lives that had purpose, meaning, that had a mission. i rember someone once sai if you don't have a idea what do you have? where is your idea? what are you doing? i think both of these people had great ideas, and they fought their whole lives to make them reality, and i think one of the things that i think is so great about mummy, aunt kennedy is the duration of their sight. i think we live in a world today that's about instant success, instant gratification. you fightor something. you expect to get it in a week. both mummy and teddy fought their entire lives, their entire lives.

40 years, 50 years to give people wh intellectual disain'ts the same rights as everybody else. it took her lifetime to achieve that. teddy fought his ente life for heal care and all of the legislation you heard talked abo about. whether it's five years or ten ars, and many people willed him off. none of the things that he accomplished would have been accomplished. i think both of them are incredible test amounts to how long this take how hard o has to accomplish something, and i think we've lost sight of that in this country and anything whether it's journalism, politics. people expect you to get elected president and solve all the problems immediately. you see how long they had to stay in there and keep hammering away and hammering away, and i think that tt gives us hope for thpeople that are disillusioned that they didn't get something done right away. if y look at people like that

and say, wow, ey accomplished a lot, but itook a long time. >> youalk about health care. you watcd what was happening in washington. did it feel like he was really on the verge of seeing his dream realized? >> i think he thought wh the election of boem obama this country was on the virj of seeing so many of his dreams realed, and i think that will be realized. i think a lot has been written about how much his voice has been missed, and i think it has. i think perhaps just his passing will invigorate people to get it done, and he gave his life to that, but he gave his life to so many things. he saw so much of what he fought for accomplished. >> there's an image from the convention last year. he was wiping tears away as he spoke about what he kashd about, health care, and other events, and, fortunately, as an advate for bark obama.

it was kind of a good-bye and a long good-bye, but he had that next year. what was that final year like? >> well, i think it was for me watching this final year was beautiful because think there have been aot of things written about teddy over the years, and it hasn't all been complimentary, and i think for someone to have that kind of love come at you is a very powerful thing. i think it's more than many people ever experience in their lifetime. i think it was a blessing for teddy that he was able to see that his work was appreciated, that his life had been valued, that people understood. he accepted the love. it's so hard to accept love, and he let it come at him, and i think that was so beautiful that he got to live and see how peopleppreciated him and that

people came up to h and thanked him, and he could feel that kind of gratitude. >> he got to experienc something his brothers didn't, which is to experience how people felt about him. >> i think very few people -- i think that's another lesson in all of this. i'm a big believer that people rarely know how people feel about them in their lives. we run around and we forget to stop and tell people how important they are and how loved they are, and how grateful we are, and i think teddy got to see that, and right after my mom died and he wasn't able to come to the fural, i went over to e him two weeks ago, and i just said to him, i want to thank you for being the most extraordinary brother to my mother. every health incident he was there for my brother, for myself. he was in every emergency room all across this country, every icu room. he came in and cheered her . i said i have never seen such an

extraordinary brother,nd i said i have never seen such an extraordinary uncle. i nto thank you for everything you have done for me, everything you did for my mother and my family, and i love you, and i'm so grateful that i had that mont, and i learned that from him, and from people leaving that there's never a moment likehe moment. teddy understood that. >> he was walking caroline down the aisle, and after the wedding jackie wrote him this note that includ are you the careful youngest brother befell a hero sec parents, lost children, desolate lives. you are a hero. everyone is going to make it because you are always there, your love. >> everybody did make it, d we've all made it, and we've all been inspired by his love. i think his example, his inspiration. i think if you really step back

by hishole life, it wasn't perfe perfect, but it was s life, and he was a great triot. he was great advocate of public service. he was a great family rock for many families, and he was here we would all feel -- he was really adamant that we would all feel his presence in our lives, and we did. i think, you know,ha is a life well lived. it's the life of -- there was a life of a purpose. he lived one. a life of purpose, passion, and meaning. >> he was able to take stock of his life in is final year in a wathat he wanted to do it. what do you think that was like for him? >> well, you know, i think you never know. i think it becomes, macning other things, it comes from generations that didn't talk much about feelings, but ihink he was an intro spektive man,

an i think he looked at his life and i think he accepted his life a his own. he accepted his triumph and weaknesses, and i think that that's a great snf strength in any human being that they can accept their whole life. he lived his own life, and he lived a lif his parents would have been proud of. i think he worked really hard to make his parents, particularly his mother, proud of him. he worked very hard to make his sisters proud of him. this was a man who rlly took the concept of family to a wle other level. my children had relationships with him. i don't know any other great cle that operates like that. >> you told one of h odwrafrs tt it was so important for him to know him because it was about the family,

it w about the history, it was about what it meant to be irish. dmroo ohyo know, he was -- he really wanted all of us to know about our irish heritage, our public service heritage, and he also wanted us to have fun, and he never got down on you when you made a mistake. he was aays encouraging. i think that's because of the life h lived. you know, i think he is the youngest of nine kids. he had formidable figures to live up to, and he understood how that weigh on a human being, and i think that's what brought out his empathy and compassion, and i think as you go through the city, i met a woman up there tonight who said that her child had been murdered and lost and teddy reache out to her and helped her with legistion and changed her life and ge her purpose and she was wearing a button of her daughter, and i

meet people, you know, every day that come up to me about teddy, mummy, teddy, jack. i say do you know that people turn out not to people who had their goals for making money or who were in search of fame, but people turn out for people who want to make the world a better. they never went out to make moy. they never went out to getn a reality show and become famous or get on tv. they went out to change the world. people get that. >> there are so many americans who have no connection to your family and, yet, they feel something visceral with the loss of your mother and nhe loss of teddy kennedy that it really is the end of such a distinct era for the kennedys. >> well, i think vice president biden addressed that by saying, you know, i don't think this is

the end of the kenned, but i think that will written, that it's the end of an era, that the kennedys are finished, and i think really the goal for each human being, whether your name is kennedy, shriver, gregory, or whatever, it's to live your fe, the life that you choose, that's in your heart, that's about something bigger than yourse urse. we'll see. >> there's still a living legacy for a younger generaon. >> that' a vael vae. ever since i grew up, ever since i was, leak, 4 or 5, which one are you? are you gog to run for president? what are you -- you know, people should be, you know -- teddy lived his life. mommy lived her life. uncle jack and uncle bobby and this whole library is about people who lived their lives and changed the world. i think everybody should have that right. >> now we are joanedere in washington by ted kennedy's close friend and colleague in

the senate, john rry. senator, i'm glad you're here. >> that was a eat, great interview. >> well, she had so many personal things to say. >> well -- >> tre's been so much talk in the last few days abo ted kennedy, the sailor, and his son said so movingly and told a story about practicing until the dinner was cold on a friday night getting readyo raise his own, and his dad said to him there are other people who are smarter and more talented, but we'll win because we'll work the hardest. you' seen him up close in the senate. how did that translate to his work as a legislator? >> well, he was a very, very astute legislator, and it was t wasn't -- teddy superb as a stat tigs, tack tigs. he had an uncanniability four the ebb and flow in mrekz and a movement of the senate. there is a life in the senate. teddy understood it. so he really knew how to

approach his colleagues and knew when the moment was right. i can remember so many times that they say we're going to do this and pu sore scratch your head. is this going to work? you have a sense of how to do it, how to put people in the right place at the right time. he always had an ability to attract superb staff, and we are all about the senate dpepdent on the abilities of our staff. ted just could get the most out of people. he was always thinking not where where we were, but about where he wanted to wind out and how we were going to get there. it wasn't dissimilar to preparing for the race and to the lessons. >> there were a couple of pictures of you, you and senator kennedy back in 1971. you had come back from vietnam, you and other veterans were

protesting on the mall, and he came to meet with you, and you said that was an important event, and then later in 1985 then senator kerry and a wonderful inscription quoting humphrey bogart at the beginning of a wonderful friendship. what did you teach you about being a politician, about being a senator? >> dade, when i first got involved in politics i thought that politics was just about the issues. you know, you believe this, you believe that, you fight for this, you fight for that. what teddy showed me is that politics -- and this is slightly contrary to what tip o'neil said when he said all politics is local. all politics is personal. that's really what teddy taught a lot of us, i think. it is personal and you ought to have fun doing it. i really learned how to have more fun. you go out and you are awfully serious and you take yourself too seriously. quoted in the comment i made on friday, you know, ted said you

want to take the issues seriously, but you don't take yourself too seriously, and he really was good at that. i might also comment on something i thought when listening to maria. you know, i said on friday that the sweetest of all seasons was a gift of this period of time that we had with teddy, and i think it was because at the convention, at the birthday party here in washington at the kennedy center, at harvard, when he went to the white house, when he came to the floor in the senate, there was just this outpouring of love, and it was just very, very moving. >> he had been giving so much of it over time. he got to experience it. >> maria said he was fighting a lot of that time. there was -- teddy's life was not easy.

there was a long period of time where ted feared for his life. a lot of people don't realize that. i mean, after bobby kennedy was assassinated, ted really believed that he was next, and there were many instances in ways that he tried to protect himself or tried to, you know, guarantee that that didn't happen, but there were struggles. there was a lot of difficulty in facing up to the massive amount of loss, and so many people often comment you on how did ted do it? these huge figures. joe during the war. jack as president. bobby as a candidate for president. it all fell on him. his nieces, nephews, and, i mean, what a statement last night on the hill as the dark

dusk clouded around us and the cameras were all out and people were just moving away, and just this sea of children surrounding the coffin just heads bowed on it and the roses, you know, on the top of it. it really gave the full meaning to his family importance to the center that he was to his family. >> you paid something now yourself. you said ted kennedy was a leader, knowing how to carry on for his family and for his colleagues after such tragedy. you now sit with the fact that you are the senior senator from massachusetts. how does that fit? >> i woke up this morning, and i still have trouble believing that he is not there. as maria just said, you have to li your life. don't try to be somebody else. don't go out and try to fill shoes or do something.

just be yourself and fight the fight, as we fought them together over these last years. there are a lot of people in the senate who understand the mission. chris dodd, tom harkin, you k w know, brown and the countless people that will carry on and, you know, do their best to try to -- you know, the cause endures. the fight goes on. >> i want to bring in chris dodd, another close friend and can colleague. senator dodd, i want to ask you about something that was so poignant that came out of the funeral yesterday from his son. he said my dad taught me how to like republicans because he said they are just the kind of patriots, they love this country as much as i do, and they're out there fighting the same kind of fight. yet, your colleague and friend lamented in recent years that it became harder to work across the aisle, that bipartisanship was something that was fading away.

what happened? >> it's not about bipartisanship. i think that had its moments and its peaks and valleys. it's stability in the process more than anything else. there's appear been bipartisanship. it's where you know where you are and which body you serve. as john just so eloquently said, he understood the rhythms of the place. we used to tease, david, with new members, are we going to vote on fridays or not? i would say, listen, you find out what ted kennedy is doing on thursday night. if he is heading to hyannis port on thursday night, there will be no votes on friday. i don't care what the leadership tells you. teddy understood what was going to happen in that place better than most, and that idea of coming back now after september 8th, we get back in session, if you want to honor teddy's memory, it's to come back and sort of, as i said the other night, sort of put us the blistering days of august and to enter the cool days of september and start acting like senators

again where we respect each other, there are differences. you bring that partisanship to the table. you work out your differences. that's what we elected to do. that's what teddy understood. it's why he was good at it, as john so well pointed out. he was a tack tigs, a master of the place. he understood it. he also understood his colleagues, and he was willing to listen to them. he paid attention to them. they brought good ideas to the table. if you do all of those thing, then you can achieve the kind of results that teddy achieved and that the senate as a body has achieved historically, and if you abandon civility, then you'll be in trouble. foo nor dodd, you heard march gentleman -- maria shriver reinvigorating the talks about health care. how do you think that happens after the hot days of august? >> i think the president has to decide to step up and really frame this for us. the leadership can do it. harry reid, i think, has worked hard. i know max baucus is working hard on the finance committee.

we put a bill back together in july, as you know, david. teddy's committee, i was asked to chair temporarily for him. a good bill. it was 300 amendments as part of that effort. most of them technical, but many are substantive. that bill has been sitting will. we're ready to work on that along with the finance committee and to move forward. that's what needs to happen here. my belief is that if we can get these bills together and sit down with each other, we can produce a strong vibrant, vitally needed health care reform legislation of accessibility, of course, quality, and affordable. >> i want to get a final thought. first from you senator dodd. as you sit here this morning after all the emotion of the past week, what is the meaning of senator kennedy, the man and the legislator that you are thinking about this morning? >> well, john, i think said it very well. one thing that was so difficult. how do you capture 30 years of friendship in eight or ten

minutes? his ability to overcome adversity was stunning to me. i mean, i just -- what he went through and to come back day after day, time after time. he used to say that all of our difficulties, he would say whatever you're worried about today, i promise you a year from today you won't remember it. if you worry about something else a year from now, but you won't worry about this. he brought that kind of vitality to his life that i think is critical for every human being. i don't care what you are doing. each and every one of us has to sort of get up every day and confront your life as it is and make the best of it, and do something larger than yourself. make a contribution. that's teddy's message, more than anything else. >> senator dodd, thank you. senator kerry, ted kennedy thought about succession. he thought about who would be in the senate after him. do you think you would like a kennedy to be there? >> sure, but he is not making that decision, and who knows?

that's not what it's about, and i think that was not what his efforts were about. he wanted the vote protected during this critical moment and only for that moment. it wouldn't upset the process of having an election. massachusetts will choose, as it ought to choose, but in the meantime, his cause of a lifetime, health care and other issues of great importance, global climate change, and others will not be adversely impacted by the absence of the vote, and that's critical. can i just say one thing? yesterday driving in, david, it was so stunning these people lining the road, and you couldn't help but think how teddy had made that journey himself down constitution avenue and over to the cemetery and he has been the face of the moments of remembrance, if you will accident for bobby, for jack. you remember him up there with ethyl, with vicky, with joe, and now he is there. it sort of hit us that, you

know, it's a generational shift, but not the end of an era. what ted did -- there was one sign i saw, the people's senator. it was hand scribed. it was such a genuine kwout pouring as a thank you for fighting for people, and i think if we all remember that and try our best to continue to just stay focus odd -- focused on why we're here, then we'll honor him. >> senator kerry, senator dodd, thank you both very much. we have more here coming up. more on senator kennedy's life and legacy with his niece kathleen kennedy townsend, long-time kennedy advisor bob shrum, and presidential historian doris kearns goodwin, and a special lock back at senator kennedy's 45-year history appearing on this program. it's coming up only on "meet the press."

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ted kennedy was the lion of the senate, brut he was also the cub of the kennedy family, and it was as a young man, just 30, that he made his very first appearance here on "meet the press." in fact, his mother, rose, wrote a letter in 1965 to this program's then moderator noting her boys john, robert, and teddy each made their debut on the program around the same young age. >> sthefs a stickler and kept her index box so she knew the facts about every one of us as we were sort of growing up. this was -- i can remember when my brother was a congressman and on "meet the press." it was in the winter time, and my mother and father brought us all in. this was the biggest thing that's ever happened to any kennedy, and it was always a big deal. >> reporter: a big deal and a test. that's how kennedy's brother, the president, saw it on the eve

of ted's debut here in 1962. >> i thought i really had everything under control. then i came to washington to visit my brother over in the white house. it was on a friday or saturday. he said, teddy, you go over there and sit behind the desk, behind the president's desk, and i'll come on in here, and he said we're going to -- we'll be the panel and ask you some questions. just sitting there made me tremble. they asked you about three questions. i said i'm going back to preparing some more. at the end of it he said, teddy. >> that first appearance came just three days after kennedy announced his candidacy for the senate seat vacated by his brother john. during the interview, there was already interest in the prospect of a kennedy political dynasty. >> i wonder if you could tell us how you feel about the presence of a family such as yours

occupying that number of key positions in american life. >> if you are talking about too much kennedys, you should have talked to my mother and father at the time when they were getting started. >> that issue of a family dynasty would follow him throughout his first campaign. >> all i'm asking is i be judged on my own abilities and the ability in which i would represent and effect a program for our state, and i would certainly be confident that many of the cynics with minds that could be changed. >> less than two years later ted kennedy had to address the future of that dynasty in the wake of his brother's assassination. >> what is the future of the kennedy family with internal dynamics for the democratic party? >> well, to the extent that we're committed to the ideals and programs of president kennedy and as they have been further supported and by president johnson.

we'll do everything we possibly can to dedicate ourselves to the ideals which the president lives and the -- >> senator kennedy would be a prominent voice on this program for decades. the longest time span of any guest. he voiced support for the war in vietnam early on. >> i support our commitment. i believe that it is fundamental and it is soubd. i believe we have to utilize every resource in our power, whether it's military or diplomatic, to see that this mission is fulfilled. >> reporter: nearly 25 years later he was a fierce critic of the decision to invade iraq. >> nuclear weapons. that's the dis organize. that's the misrepresentation. that's the lie. >> reporter: kennedy appeared when he had something important to say on issues like health care. >> we mou have a financing system that awards sickness and

illness for paying the program. we ought to provide financial incentives for keeping people healthy rather than treating them when they're ill and sick. we can cia billions of dollars on it. that kind of an alternative i think we ought to be addressing. we haven't. >> reporter: always a fierce advocate for his issues, but early on much more coy about his ambition. >> do you hope to someday run for president? >> well, i would say that having seen the problems of my brother, i just wonder whether that seeking that job is really worth it. i would hope to effectively be able to be a public service to the people in my home state and to effect their interest in the construct i way. >> reporter: years later he did run, and as a candidate, he was asked his fitness for office in the wake of the accident. >> the fact of the matter is i have been impacted over the course of my life by a series of

crisis, by a series of tragedy. i lost my brothers under the most trying and tragic circumstances. i have also faced the illness and sickness of a child that's been impacted by cancer. i've had other tragedies in my life. i have responded to those challenges by, one, acting responsibly, and, two, by the continuing commitment that i have for public service. rirchlgt after that 1980 bid kennedy reflected on the campaign. >> i'm the first to acknowledge that we did make mistakes, and there have been inadequacies in my campaign. i suppose even in my own performance during the course of the campaign, which i am quite prepared to acknowledge. >> reporter: years later kennedy addressed that one elusive goal and his life's work. >> do you regret having never been elected president? >> well, i fought for it and didn't make it.

i would have liked to certainly at the time that i brsh i love the senate. >> i think we most degree grae that he got the hang of it. we are now joined by ted kennedy's niece kathleen kennedy townsend, presidential historian doris kern goodwin, and the long-time presidential advisor bob shrum. kathleen, our deepest sympathies, and we're very thankful you're here this morning to share your thoughts where. >> well, thank you. i want to thank all of you folks across the country and really the world who have been so outpouring of love and affection and thanks to my uncle. i want to also say vickie has done an extraordinary job over the last few days. >> you see that tape. just on this program, the legacy on this program is really something. >> it's extraordinary because all the time, as he said, despite the tragedy, despite his own mistakes, he says you can keep fighting, and i think, you

know, as a niece and member of this family, it was important for all of us to see this -- our uncle in the toughest times never giving up and saying to each of us you can do it too. pitts helping us and building us. i'm telling you, you know, we were talking earlier in the greenroom about how it is tough not to have a father. he reached out and embraced my family and -- >> we talk about legacy, and you look backwards as a historian, but you look forwards as well. in this circumstance the president talked about kennedy as the senator of our time.

where sde rank? >> it depends on historian. i think i might be able to say that not only is he the greatest legislator of our time, which is what president obama said. he may be the greatest all-around senator of our time. what then senator john kennedy would have been in the 1950s he created a committee. teddy shares all their qualities. henry clay, the great legislator. daniel webster, the great orator. teddy may not have had the stern oratory, but you have taf and norris and the various progress southeasts who all their lives fought for that cause. he fought for the leb cal cause. senator van denburg, he is all of those things. at the same time he made the people in massachusetts feel like he was one of them. i thought when we were sitting vigil during the days that he was taken memorial service, that you want those people to come through, ordinary people. every one of them knew him.

governor packard said i knew him before i met him. the people in massachusetts met him. you see the people coming by. they're saluting him. their red sox hat comes on or they're doing the sign of the cross. they all have a story. he tells helped my grandmother. he helped my son. he was there. he put all those things together. i think he might be the greatest all-around senator of all time. >> bob, you were so close to him throughout his career, but in that 1980 bid, tim russert asked about not achieving it. i guess he joked. i don't mind not being president. i just mind that somebody else is. he said that all through the 1970s. he didn't mind that barack obama became president, and i think he played an instrumental role in it. i think he would say that -- he did say that the 1980s he spept too much time thinking whether to run for president and not enough time thinking about what he was going to say when he got out there.

the lead he had in the polls to make sure he didn't offend anyone, and this led to in the initial stages of the campaign not saying much. well, ted kennedy happened to be the worst politician i err met in my life at saying nothing. he was maybe the best politician i ever saw as saying something, and actually i think the oratory motivated people, stirred people, gave them a sense of his purpose, and oof people give good speeches, and i think he gave unbelievable speeches, but then he went and made those speeches become part of the life and fabric of the country. from the americans with disabilities act. there are six million kids in this country that are covered with health insurance today because of him. he led into law the law to stop apartheid and stop sanctions against south africa. you could put down a list of 50, 60, or 70 gigantically successful pieces of legislat n legislation.

he said i've had the most extraordinary career. he could claim all of them. >> let me ask you about another aspect of his personal life, the personal struggles in lis life. there was supper a poignant letter that he wrote to the pope that was read last night. i want to put a portion of it up on the screen. most holy father i asked president obama to personally hand deliver this letter to you. i am writing with deep to ask as you pray for me as my own health decleans. i was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although i continue treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me. i am 77 years old and preparing for the next passage of life. i have been blessed to be a part of of a wonderful family and both of my parents, particularly my mother, kept our catholic faith at the center of our lives. that gift of faith has sustained, nurtured and provided solis to me in the darkest hours. i know that i have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith, i have tried to right my path.

kathleen, the imperfect part of his being was very public. how did he make -- take stock of that in the end? >> i have to say i think that's one of the great important parts of the catholic faith. we used to joke we were the church of sinners rather than the church of saints, and, therefore, we're all sinners, and he can pray to god and say are you going to believe that i can make something better of my life rather than saying you can never come back, and that is really what i think the catholic faith is. you saw that yesterday when the cardinals were there, the priests were there. they were saying this man is going to heaven because he was there for the least among us, and i think -- i can't remember who said this, but you can't take your own faults and say, oh, i'm so bad. i can't do anything else. some of us feel that we're not

worthy, and he wouldn't let that sense of judging himself to stop him from doing something better, and that has great spiritual understanding that i think he shares with -- is an inspiration to people of many faithed. >> as a public figure, a politician, he had to come to the grips with the fact that the public treated those kinds of indiscretions in his era than they did in his brother's era, and had he to adjust to that. >> i think that whatever weaknesses, whatever happened, he had to live it out in public in a way that most people, most of us, would in private. kathleen is right. he never let it interfere with him. there was always for me an incredible sense of character. this was someone who in 1980 everybody said he is bound to win the nomination. he is on his way. nothing will stop him. when things got tough, when he went into the dark alley, he just kept going. he inspired everybody in that campaign. we all ended up not getting paid, i mean, because we had no

money. he inspired everybody in that campaign to keep going. he did little things that really mattered and showed incredible generocity of spirit. we were down there in the christmas before when we thought we were going to debate president carter, but it got canceled because the president said he had to take care of the hostage crisis. he knew my parents lived not very far away. he said why don't you have my parents come over and have dinner with my mother and me. my mother, her first reaction was i can't possibly do that. i have to have my hair done. my father said we're going to go. we went over there, and she had broken her leg earlier. they talked about their blessed mother. an hour, hour and a half. he showed my father and my nephew around that house and told them everything that had happened, and they could have been the leader of another country the way he treated them. you know the crowds people were

talking about wrish wasn't surprised to see the lead up to his death and afterward what jushlists said, what historians said, what others said. all those people standing out there somehow or other got it. they got that he had changed their lives, and it was such a privilege to be a small part of that. >> i want to add -- >> you drove by. thank you. thank you. thank you. god bless you. >> to go to your point, hemingway once said that everybody is broken by life, and afterward many are strong, and that's all you can ask of a person is that they -- when he you look at the letter to the pope, it was a much deeper felt than what was on "meet the press." that sounded more defensive. he had absorbed i think those pains, the imperfections, the things that he did, and all you can do is ask that person to become strong and make up for it by doing everything you can. >> in 1979 we rehearsed that

answer, that letter. that letter came from his heart. >> wow. >> can i end on something -- what i have taken from the last few days is the enduring lesson of perseverance, and there's a couple of things i want to show. the aftermath of that crash in 1964 that almost took his life, and you see the determination on his face waving to the crowd after he had been so severely injured. then the image of last year at the convention despite such personal pain, such physical pain. he made a point of being there. i think what was most poignant was the lesson that his son talked about at the funeral yesterday, that as a kid losing his leg and his dad wanted to take him out to go sledding, and he fell and ride and said i don't think i can do this. this is what he said. >> i fell on the ice, and i started to cry, and i said i can't do this. i said i'll never be able to climb up that hill. he lifted me up in his strong,

gentle arms and said something i will never forget. he said i know you can do it. there is nothing that you can't do. we're fwg -- going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day. >> just ten seconds left. that's a legacy. >> i think the legacy in rose and joseph kennedy who said to their children persevere, get something done, make a difference. >> thank you all for sharing your thoughts on what has been an emotionally exhausting past couple of days. ♪ we have only to look into each other's eyes... to see the story of our planet. a few simple truths: the way hydrogen bonds with oxygen, the cadence and order of things -- have lived there from the beginning. but if we move a little to the left,

change perspective, and consider the notion of adding the human element... to the periodic table of the elements, we see the world for the first time. and it is a world that responds to our touch. we work the new chemistry... element by element. and, in turn, we learn the secret to a better life. a story of a planet... where chemistry embraces humanity. ♪

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press". we leave you now prosecute this week's farewell to senator ted kennedy. ♪ >> ted kennedy was the baby of the family. he became a patriarch. a restless dreamer who became a rock. >> he had such a big heart, and he shared that heart with all of us. >> at the end of the day it was never about him. he was always about you.

a truly remarkable caricature. >> in the end those in repose are grieving as we speak. in the end a darling rose no longer has to see. i will miss my irish friend. god be with you. until we meet again. ♪ >> i looked up, and there was this one star hanging low in the sky that was just bigger than all the rest and brighter than all the rest. he had a twinkle and -- that was brighter than all the rest. i know it was jupiter, but it was acting a lot like ted

kennedy. ♪ >> the work goes on. >> the work goes on. >> the cause endures. the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. i love you. i always will, and i miss you i love you. i always will, and i miss you already. if you're still one of the guys who's going over and over... going urgently... waking up to go... it's time to do what lots of guys everywhere have already done-- go see your doctor, because those could be urinary symptoms due to bph, an enlarged prostate. and for many men, prescription flomax reduces their urinary symptoms due to bph in one week. one week. only your doctor can tell if you have bph,

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